My Promise to You
by bakane
Summary: If words were enough to save his daughter from a tragic, heroic fate, then Taiyang would speak them all at once. However, like everything else important in his life, he held no real power over Ruby's decision. Frankly, he never had any to begin with.


A prompt-based story dedicated to TheShadow977

* * *

"Do You Realize - that happiness makes you cry?  
Do You Realize - that everyone you know someday will die?

And instead of saying all of your goodbyes - let them know.  
You realize that life goes fast.  
It's hard to make the good things last.  
You realize the sun doesn't go down.  
It's just an illusion caused by the world spinning round."

-Do You Realize? By The Flaming Lips

* * *

It was a stereotypical summer morning and Ruby had never waited longer for anything else in her entire life. The first and second day passed by with nothing important arriving in the mail. She often heard the phrase, "the third times the charm," which kept her in high hopes, but Ruby was greatly disappointed to find a pile of junk mail when she opened the door.

She had little practice with patience, and Ruby, who was ten years old at the time, was very close to giving up. A watching pot never boiled, she told herself, sitting dismally on the front porch swing.

After exactly one week of heinous waiting, Ruby found that her prayers had been answered. Inside the mailbox, there was a thick pristine envelope, with her full name written above the address.

"Dad!" Ruby started to shout, holding up the letter in her hand. With it, she sprinted through the front lawn, diving into the living room of their house.

Her father, Taiyang Xiao Long, was sitting across the kitchen counter. Legs hanging off his chair, and his mouth half-stuffed with breakfast toast, he turned around to address his daughter's calls.

"What?" He said after swallowing his food. "What is it?"

"You remember that big surprise I had?" Ruby began, her body practically titter-tottering in pure excitement. "I think I'm ready to tell it now."

"Okay?" He nodded, wiping his hands clean of breadcrumbs. "You have my attention."

"So, Dad." Ruby sucked in a deep breath of air. "I've decided… I want to become a huntress."

There was a moment of silence.

"Oh." Taiyang was still for a moment, staring at Ruby from over the kitchen table. Ruby remained on her toes, waiting for his response.

"…That's great, honey," Taiyang finally said, wearing an odd sort of smile.

"Okay, good!" Ruby raised a triumphant fist. "Then that brings us to my biggest announcement!"

Taiyang frowned. "You mean, that wasn't it?"

"Nope!" Ruby beamed. "Because this just came in the mail today!"

She showed off her letter, which Taiyang took with a calm expression. His fingers wrapped around the envelope, running a thumb across the postmark – the sigil of Signal Academy.

"It's my application form!" Ruby piped over the present hush. "I was going to tell you sooner, but I wanted to surprise you and Yang. It's perfect, isn't it? You'll be teaching at the school, and I can hear you lecture us in class, and Uncle Qrow can teach me how to fight with his awesome scythe and-"

Ruby breathed in again, making sure to stop before possibly imploding.

"So? what do you think?" Ruby prompted him.

"Um… I don't know." Taiyang seemed a bit too dazed to respond. "This is all so sudden, Ruby. I mean, you're still so young."

"Yeah. But I heard Signal lets anybody join if they're good enough," reasoned Ruby quickly, "and Yang joined when she was only eleven. Remember?"

"Well…" Taiyang appeared to struggle with his next words. "Your sister's always been a bit more…dynamic."

"And now it's my turn!" Ruby decided happily, taking back her letter in action. With great enthusiasm, she tore open the envelope and took out the papers that were inside. Concentrating on the very first page, Ruby took a seat across from her father and grabbed a pencil from the nearby counter.

"Name?" She read out the questions as she wrote. "Wow, that's an easy one. Ruby…Rose… Your gender? …I…am…a…girl. And, birth place? The island…of…Patch! Okay, special skills! That's not too difficult, I've got loads of those!"

Ruby took her time, scribbling away the list she had been finalizing in her head. In less than ten minutes, she was already half-way through the second page. "All right. Last question: What are your reasons for wanting to become a huntsman or a huntress?"

"Why _do_ you want to become a huntress, Ruby?" Taiyang asked, with waning composition. There was something about the tone of his voice that made Ruby look up.

"Um… Well, Yang used to read me stories all the time before I went to sleep," Ruby tried to explain. "And there was this one story about the very first huntress to ever exist! She was really young, but she was apparently super strong, and her semblance was powerful enough to take out a whole swarm of Grimm with the flick of her hand!"

"That's just a fairy tale," Taiyang began to refute her. "Nobody knows who the first huntsman or huntress really was."

"I know, I know. It's just a story to teach us about the history of Remnant," Ruby rushed, predicting what he was about to say. "But stories are based on at least _some_ truth, right?"

"Well, yes…" He let out a sigh of exhaustion. "Ruby, what I'm trying to tell you is that… Being a huntress isn't easy. You have to go out on missions and spend a lot of time on the road. You have to fight enemies for almost every single day of your life! It's very different from the books you've been reading."

"I _know_ that." Ruby frowned. "And that's exactly why I want to go to Signal! I want to train and fight so that I can actually do all of that stuff. I want to be like you, Dad!"

"Honey, you don't want to end up like me," he murmured.

"It's too late for that!" Ruby grinned broadly. "I'm your daughter, through and through!"

"Ruby," Taiyang went on, his voice growing hoarser by the second. "Just because I'm a huntsman, and just because your mother was a huntress, it doesn't mean that you have to follow in our footsteps."

"But... I'm not! That's not why I want to do this…" Ruby took a moment to sort out her thoughts. "No, I want to become a huntress so that I can help people!"

"That's not-" Taiyang swallowed thickly as if this was the worst thing his daughter could have ever said to him.

"You're too young to know what that means," he finally whispered.

"What else can it mean?" Ruby laughed it off. "I want to help people. I want to fight off the Grimm. It's simple as that."

"No, it's not!" Taiyang finally snapped, and the mood of levity vanished in an instant.

Ruby stood, frozen solid for a minute. Her silver eyes blinked once, and then twice, staring at her father in concern.

"…Dad?"

"You don't know what that means, Ruby," he repeated, in a much harsher, colder tone. "You _can't_ know. You haven't been through enough to understand."

Ruby deflated in her seat, the pencil slowly slipping out of her fingers in waning confidence. She dreaded to hear the rest of his speech.

"I think you should wait a couple more years," suggested Taiyang, exercising control over his shaking fists. "Signal's not going anywhere. You can wait until you're a bit older and then we can talk about this again."

"What? No!" Ruby jumped out of her chair, horrified at the very idea. "Dad! I have to start _now_ if I want to be as good as everybody else!"

"This is a very serious issue, Ruby," Taiyang tried his best to persuade her. "I want you to be absolutely sure before you make this decision."

"I am absolutely sure!" Ruby retorted loudly. "This is so unfair! You never stopped Yang from doing what she wanted to do."

"Trust me, I've talked with your sister about this as well," he told her, sounding as though he was recalling a conversation which had been particularly sour. "It was different with Yang. She's older than you, and she's always been a bit rowdy."

"I can be rowdy too!"

"Ruby, you stay in your room all day and read," Taiyang sighed. "You haven't even unlocked your semblance yet."

"But… Once I learn how to fight, it'll be different!"

"Honey-"

"No, Dad!" Ruby snapped. A wave of frustration crested inside her. "You're just going to keep saying no, even when I am old enough! I know I want to do this, okay? I want to go to Signal. I want to learn how to be a huntress! Mom used to always tell us that we need to follow our dreams, to do what we think is right."

"I know what she used to tell you, Ruby!" Taiyang nearly shouted. "That's what she told everybody before-"

He stopped himself short of the next word, knowing that neither he nor his daughter would want to hear the end of that sentence. Taiyang fell silent as if he were running out of options to explore. His expression grew darker and paler, suffocating upon memories that surrounded him like lingering dreams.

"No," he stated firmly. "No. Even Summer wouldn't want you to do this."

He snatched the papers off from the table, locking them up inside a kitchen drawer. "You will not be going to Signal Academy, and that's final."

"But-"

"No," Taiyang stopped her again. "I don't want to hear another word about it."

Ruby stared up at him, at the man she had looked up to for many years. Never before had he appeared so daunting in her eyes. And never before did Ruby feel such a strong surge of anger towards him. This was unlike any other fight, any other heated discussion, any other punishment or withdrawal of her dessert cookie rights.

This was unreasonable.

And Ruby, seeing no other way to fight back, and feeling no urge to show him her impending tears, did the only thing she can do.

She ran.

She stomped across the hall, heading straight for the door. It opened before she had a chance to pull the handle.

"Hey, sis!" Yang's jolly voice reached her. "The weather's pretty great today. Did you want to go for a swim later?"

"No," Ruby croaked, barely squeezing out a response. Shaking her head, she kept her eyes on the ground. Then before her sister could continue, she brushed her aside and bolted out the door.

"Uh, Ruby?" Yang called her from behind. "Ruby, where are you going?"

* * *

Several hours had passed by and Yang Xiao Long stayed in her bed, rolling onto her side, then onto her back again, each time in pricking discomfort. The reason being Ruby, her younger sister, who still hadn't returned home since this morning.

She did not expect to return home to such chaos: an upset father on one end and an equally upset Ruby on the other.

Yang had tried to go after her, but Taiyang had told her to stop, judging that Ruby needed some time alone to cool off.

She noticed him, still in the kitchen, agonizing over a letter addressed to them from Signal. From that, Yang put two and two together.

Yang felt a little guilty, or perhaps mildly responsible. After all, she had been the one to encourage Ruby with stories of huntsmen and huntresses. And the longer Ruby was missing and her own, the more responsible she felt.

In a split second of resolution, Yang left her bedroom.

"Dad, it's getting pretty dark out there," said Yang, in a voice of concern. "I'm going to go look for Ruby."

Taiyang barely responded, half his face buried in his own hands. He did give her a weak nod though, and Yang - without a second of hesitance - headed out the front door.

The search didn't take her too long. Yang knew all the hot spots to check. Patch wasn't a large island, and there weren't too many dangerous places to avoid.

Yang went straight for the small woodlands, near their father's log cabin. Rustling through trees and bushes, she went a little off the path. After ten minutes of walking, Yang found herself at a large clearing, sheltered by thick tree tops in the rain and inviting in a gentle breeze during the fall.

At the center was a rather shabby-looking fortress, built from scratch by tiny children's hands. It was relatively small, and it was hardly used now that they had both grown a little taller. But it was still large enough for them to fit into, if they were to crouch.

Yang went up to their secret fort, her big sister radar running wild as she heard a few sniffles coming from inside. "Ruby?"

"Hey, Yang..." Ruby raised her head, hugging her legs closer to her chin. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, I came to talk to you, of course," said Yang. She crawled inside, making sure not to hit the ceiling as she went. "Wow, I can't believe we can still both fit in here."

"Yeah," Ruby answered, sounding rather absentminded. "I guess so."

"So...?" Yang paused, playing with her hair as she waited. "You feel like coming home yet?"

"Sorry," Ruby murmured. "I didn't mean to stay out for this long."

"Aw, no one's mad at you, Rubes," Yang consoled her, moving in for an old-fashioned shoulder hug. "I was just worried about you."

"Mhmm..."

"You know, Dad seemed pretty worried about you too," added Yang. "Do you want to come home and tell him you're okay?"

Ruby didn't answer, silently telling her sister that she was still rather reluctant to leave.

"Okay... Maybe not." Yang shrugged. "Do you feel like talking to me about it?"

Ruby was slower to open her mouth, but she obeyed nonetheless. "Dad doesn't want me to become a huntress."

"I know," Yang sighed. "Take it from me though, he doesn't really mean it. I had a big argument with him too, when I first joined Signal. He gave in eventually, and I'm sure he'll give in sooner or later and let you go too."

"No, but..." Ruby huffed. "I don't want him to say yes because _I_ want him to say yes. I want him to mean it."

"Um, what?" Yang blinked.

"I thought..." Ruby struggled to explain. "I thought he'd be proud of me when I said I wanted to become a huntress. I thought he'd understand, you know? He's a huntsman. Isn't he supposed to understand?"

"Well, yeah..." Yang mulled it over for a little while. "I guess as a huntsman, he's kind of supposed to. But Ruby... He's not just that. He's our _dad_."

"Yeah, so?" Ruby wrinkled her nose.

"He just doesn't want to see you get hurt," Yang gave her best possible answer. "You know how much he loves you."

Ruby rolled her eyes in response. "Dad loves you too, but he still lets _you_ go to Signal."

"Aw, maybe Dad loves you more than he does me," Yang joked.

"No way!" Ruby snorted in disbelief. "He just doesn't think I have what it takes to do it."

"Nah, that can't be it," Yang said, wearing a bemused frown. She knew better than to think that her father doubted hers or _Ruby's_ potential.

"Hey, do you remember that one time when we were..." Yang paused as she recalled the story. "Actually, maybe you were a bit too young to remember... This was when I was about four or five, and it's one of the earliest memories I have of us. We were all outside, having a nice family barbecue. Mom was still out on a mission and Dad wanted to do something to cheer us up."

"I think I remember," muttered Ruby. "Didn't Dad end up burning everything?"

"Yeah, he did!" Yang laughed. "And I thought it'd be a really good idea to try and cook lunch by myself. Dad was too busy taking care of you, and I was playing with the grill... But I got too close to the flame and my clothes caught on fire."

"Wait. What?" Ruby's eyes widened. "I definitely don't remember _that_."

"Good." Yang snickered. "Because it was a bit embarrassing. I mean, I remember screaming a lot. And Dad picked me up from the ground and ran for the lake."

"No way! Did you have to go to the hospital?" Ruby squeaked.

"Well, it turns out, that's the day I found out what my semblance can really do." Yang smiled, looking down at her hands, remembering how strange it felt to see the flames, and yet not being able to feel the burn. "It was a pretty crazy day."

"Sounds like it." Ruby let out a breath of relief.

"Anyways, that's not why I'm telling you this story," Yang continued hastily. "There's a reason I remember that so well. It was right when Dad picked me up. I can never forget the look on his face that day. He was just- Terrified, you know? I've never seen him that scared before."

It was easier to think of their parents as invincible, capable of just about anything. But Yang knew, this wasn't the case. She had found out the hard way; they all have.

The woods fell quiet again. Yang noticed that Ruby hadn't spoken yet. She was gazing down at her own knees in indiscernible silence, apparently lost in her own recollections as well.

"Ruby, Dad loves you a lot," Yang spoke with gentle conviction. "And he once told me that losing someone you love is the hardest thing you'll ever have to go through. That's all he's ever afraid of, I think."

There was another low sniffle, and Ruby wiped away a dribbling tear.

"So, do you know what that means?"

"What?" Ruby asked in a quiet voice.

"We should get even stronger! Strong enough so that we can watch over him instead." Yang grinned in the same, mischievous manner that belonged to her alone. "And then we're going to make him eat his own words."

* * *

Taiyang didn't know what to do. He hadn't moved since Yang had gone after Ruby.

He really hadn't meant to lose his temper. Taiyang spent an extraordinary amount of time exerting caution, not wanting to damage his family in any other way. It was true that during his teenage years, he had been more reckless, boisterous, and restless (all good characteristics he had passed down onto his daughters).

But as the years passed by, he liked to think that he had matured. He was older, with more experience to last him a lifetime. He was now a father of two wonderful children.

Taiyang knew that Ruby had not meant to do or say anything that would have upset him. Her decision, though it came as a surprise, had been a gradual one with much build-up. He would be lying to say that he hadn't noticed it. That golden expression on Ruby's face whenever Qrow came to visit. Her glee, whenever Yang recounted stories from Signal. Ruby's silver eyes - a sign of destiny, a marked birth of a great and powerful warrior.

But most of all, Ruby was a spitting image of her mother. And Summer was the kind of person who would never abandon a person in trouble, even if it meant that her life would have to be the ultimate sacrifice.

It was a painful reminder, of death, of regret, of loss and of grief. It was an ending he never expected to have. It was a story he still could not retell, not when he suffered from the same empty hollowness, a void from which he could never truly recover from.

Ruby was innocent, naive even. She was different from her sister, different from Raven and Qrow, different from anyone he had ever known. She was a gift, Summer's last present to him, and nothing terrified him more than the thought of Ruby succumbing to the same, terrifying fate as her mother.

Regardless, he knew this day would come, with much dread than he could possibly muster. Taiyang had gone over it with Yang, and he was certain that with his youngest daughter, it would have been an easier choice to make.

And yet, the outcome had been worse. It turned out that he was even worse at handling it the second time around. It was unfair, to both of his children, really.

How could he explain to Ruby that some fairy tales simply did not come true? How could he explain that a hero was never truly invincible? How could he possibly explain that the greater one's heart was, the greater risk there was of death. How could he even begin to explain that he never found Summer's passing to be heroic at all. He found it to be a foolish one, and he knew it would be a fate suffered by all those who were too good for this sick, twisted universe.

Yang understood, to a greater extent than Ruby. She had been older when Summer broke her promise. She had to be brave, to be an adult much too soon. This was something Taiyang knew he never should have asked of from his eldest daughter. But he had been ripped apart into pieces at the time, and once he had recovered enough to look back, Yang had already grown up.

Yang was no longer a child. She had experienced grief and dealt with death in her own way. She didn't stay awake, waiting for her mother to return home with a tray of freshly baked cookies. She knew what price Summer had to pay, and not once did she seem to idolize it.

With Ruby, it was a completely separate matter. With Ruby, Taiyang made a promise to never make the same mistake again; he vowed to keep her safe and to shelter her from the impending darkness of this world.

But in spite of that, what if Ruby had already learned to fend for herself?

Taiyang frowned. What if, as he spent his days, fussing and worrying over her safety, Ruby had been moving forward on her own, without the help from him nor her sister, but simply from the little red cloak Summer had left behind.

The truth had never been so painfully clear: it was _he_ who was incapable of action. Taiyang stared down at the papers on the table. Numerous times, he thought about tearing them to unrecognizable shreds. Then, he remembered Ruby's expression and her face of hopeful optimism. He supposed that, in the past, he had worn the same look as well.

Taiyang took the pen, knowing what he must do. In the end, it was not his choice to make. It was inevitable.

He stared out the window, watching the shattered moon loom across the sky. Thankfully, a little past six, he heard the loud creaks of wood, and the sound of a closing door. There were echoes of multiple footsteps; he audibly breathed in relief, realizing that Yang had managed to bring Ruby home.

He stayed in his chair, listening to his daughters walk up to the second floor. Taiyang scratched his chin, unsure if now was the appropriate time to talk. To his greatest surprise, it was Ruby who first walked into the room.

There was a moment of awkward silence, during which Ruby seemed to experience a lot of different emotions. But by the end of it, Ruby's face disappeared entirely from his vision.

He made a short "oof!" sound, as he felt the air being punched out of his lungs. He did nothing else though, not wanting to do anything as Ruby hugged him tightly around his waist, digging her small face into his old scruffy sweater.

"Ruby..."

She didn't say a word to him. He didn't think it was quite necessary.

He returned the embrace, with one loving arm. With the other, he reached over her shoulders, picking up a single parchment from the table.

"Ruby," he spoke softly into her ear. "I have something for you."

There was a long, dragged-out silence. Ruby slowly raised her chin, looking up to see what her father was holding. Her eyes widened in genuine shock, noticing her father's signature etched on the righthand corner.

"Do you really mean it?" she asked.

"Of course." He held her closer, as they looked down at the list together. "Although... I don't think eating twenty cookies under five minutes counts as a special skill..."

Taiyang said this, with the most understanding, teasing smile he could muster. If he tried long enough, then maybe one day this sentiment would become true. "How about I help you finish up the rest of the form?" he offered.

"...Okay."

"Okay." He bent over, pecking her gently on the forehead.

"Hey, Dad?" Ruby mumbled.

"Hmm?"

"I'm never going to leave you," Ruby said quietly. "You know that, right?"

"...I know." He smiled warmly. "Thank you."


End file.
